If you ever wanted a way to manage your personal contacts - including your social media contacts - the best way to do it is via "cloud computing." And, that is really what those silly little Poken flash drives do. You touch hands between Pokens and they glow. Then, the information has been transferred back-and-forth. You stick the flash drive in your computer and send the info up to that Poken cloud and you may never have to concern yourself with updating contact information again. I think that is quite remarkable.

More recently I learned about a software program called Dropbox. What Dropbox does is updates all your data between computer appliances. No longer do you need to transfer documents between devices. What's on your desktop can be automatically transferred to your laptop and cellphone or smartphone. No flash drive required. And, what about using a library computer? No problem. Dropbox has its own webserver. Therefore, you can always access your data wherever you have access to the Internet. And, you can always be sure that when you update data one place it updates it everywhere you have a Dropbox account.
This changes the whole motivation behind having a back-up hard-drive. Dropbox may actually be more awesome than what Poken offers. But, make no mistake, the two together are a wonderful package.

I have used Dropbox. I think it's OK to use in cases where I have clients or colleagues who want to share files for a project.

I have yet to see Poken take off. I mean, I follow tech blogs and Facebook and whatnot, and have never seen in mentioned by any of my peers or connections. This forums is the only place I've ever heard of it.

Pokens are used by IBM at their conferences. That's pretty credible to me. Apple makes a Dropbox-like product called Mobileme. However, I have yet to find any company with a Poken-like product. Admittedly, the Poken is a Swiss product. It is more popular in Europe than the USA.
Foursquare got its start in New York City about two years ago. Well, guess what? There are still folks in Florida and California who have never heard of it. Technology news does not travel as fast as you might think.

All the Workforce Investment Act locations in South Florida (Broward County/Ft. Lauderdale area) are now Foursquare venues. A restaurant within brief walking distance from the Workforce One North office in Pompano Beach has a Foursquare Cling Sticker on its front door. Yet, every Workforce One office refuses to even acknowledge it. What's more, they teach Twitter in their area offices, but refuse to allow the job-seekers using their computer systems to access it. Very strange.

As for Poken popularity, I have yet to see any activity here in Florida. That does not mean it is not there. I just have yet to see it.

I know Scott says no one he knows uses a Poken, but does he know of a product like it that is popular? You can use Dropbox and various other software programs to do something similar. But, who is doing anything with flash drives like Poken is doing? What would you use to replace a business card? And no, a cell phone is NOT the answer. I have yet to see any cell phone that can duplicate what a Poken does.